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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright Noi 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



TWO • UNPUBLISHED • ESSAYS 4^ 
THE CHARACTER OF 
SOCRATES 




THE PRESENT STATE 
OF ETHICAL 
PHILOSOPHY 

5Y y^ 

RALPH • WALDO EMERSON 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

EDWARD EVERETT HALE 



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MDCCCXCVl 

LAMSON • WOLFFE • O • CO 

BOSTON O NEW-YORK 




[ '^fS 27 1896 ) 



?S lUS. 



Copyright, 1895, 
By Lam son, WolfFe, & Co. 



All rights reserved 



Introduction 

THE name of James Bowdoin is first on that cata- 
logue preserved by John Lovell of pupils of the 
Boston Latin School, which is the basis of its printed cata- 
logue. He graduated at Cambridge in 1 745, and, in 1783, 
the college made him a Doctor of Laws. He was a fellow 
of the college, president of the American Academy, and 
Governor of Massachusetts in 1788. He was a leading 
member of the convention which adopted the Federal 
Constitution 5 he was president of the convention of 
1780, which made the Constitution of Massachusetts. 
Very likely it was he who gave Harvard College its new 
name of «^the University at Cambridge,'' and it is per- 
haps a pity that that name has not been preserved by his 
successors. 

When he died, in 1790, he left in his will a bequest, 
<* to my Alma Mater, the University at Cambridge," 
of some four hundred pounds, to be placed at interest 
in good security, ** and the interest thereof annually 
applied in the way of premiums for the advancement of 
useful and polite literature in the residents, as well grad- 
uates as undergraduates, of the university, the premiums 
to be paid in such way and manner as shall be best 
adapted to excite a spirit of emulation among such resi- 
dents 5 the performances entitled to such premiums to be 



Introduction 



read in public by their respective authors, who shall 
deliver a fair copy of the same, to be lodged in the 
library, such copies to be written on quarto paper of 
the same size, that such of them as shall merit it may 
be bound together in handsome, volumes and lodged in 
the library."" 

At some period not very long after Governor Bow- 
doin's death, the arrangements were made, substantially 
as they are still carried on, for the Bowdoin prize disser- 
tations, as they are called at Cambridge. An announce- 
ment is made annually that dissertations will be received, 
from resident graduates and from undergraduates, in 
competition for the prizes offered. Several subjects arc 
assigned, from which the competitors may select such 
as they prefer to handle ; but no competitor may write 
on any subject except one of these. The income of the 
fund has not been all used in every year for the prizes 
offered, and it has thus been enlarged by the appropria- 
tion of unused interest to the increase of the principal, 
till it stands on the treasurer's account at about fourteen 
thousand dollars. At the time of Bowdoin' s death, the 
pound of which he spoke was worth $3.33 ; the fund is 
therefore now nearly ten times what it was then. 

At present, nine prizes are offered from this founda- 
tion. They may be as much as one hundred dollars ; 
they will not be less than fifty dollars. They are offered 
for translations into Greek or Latin, for compositions in 



Introduction 



Greek or Latin, and for English essays. Some of the 
subjects in English essays are historical, some are what 
is now called philosophical, and some are scientific. 
The dissertations must not contain more than ten thou- 
sand words, and the authors of successful dissertations 
are invited to read them in public, at a place and time 
to be designated by the dean. 

In Mr. Emerson's day, the arrangement was sub- 
stantially the same, but the first prizes were then only 
fifty dollars, and the second prizes thirty. The tradi- 
tion is that a gold medal was originally offered, and it 
was offered at that time ; but for many, many years no 
candidate ever asked for the medal. The winners of 
prizes were generally young men who knew how to use 
their money ; and when, many years after Mr. Emer- 
son, a successful competitor asked for his gold medal, it 
proved that the college had no die for any such medal, 
and no such offer has since been made. 

Fortunately for us, among the subjects given in the 
year 1820 was «' The Character of Socrates." Mr. 
Emerson was at this time seventeen years old. Know- 
ing him as we know him now, one is not surprised that 
he chose this subject. His dissertation, printed from 
the copy preserved in the college library, is in the 
reader's hands. The next year, fortunately again, 
there was among the subjects << The Present State of 
Ethical Philosophy.'' Once more Mr. Emerson was 



Introduction 



successful in the competition, and the second of these 
curious and valuable papers exists, therefore, in the col- 
lection at Cambridge, which also is reprinted here. 

Whoever reads these essays now, if he be at all 
familiar with the habit of writing, in the first half of the 
century, of men who were dealing with such subjects, 
will see that the boy of seventeen or eighteen years of 
age wrote what must have surprised and sometimes an- 
noyed the sort of men who would be apt to be named 
upon a committee of award. In the present instance, 
the committees were the corporation of the college, con- 
sisting of President Kirkland, John Davis, Dr. William 
Ellery Channing, John Lowell, John Phillips, William 
Prescott, and Dr. Eliphalet Porter. Governor Gore 
assisted in the award of 1820. It would be hard to 
make a better committee. 

It will be an encouragement to many a young man, 
in his early tussles of competition, if he be reminded 
that Ralph Waldo Emerson at that time could not, or 
did not, write an essay that was thought worthy of a first 
prize. It is pathetic to think that the judges were not 
willing to award the first prize to any of the papers 
which were offered in the competition. 

But to us who read after the event, who read after 
Mr. Emerson has changed the whole philosophy of that 
time, the opportunity to read what the «' Yankee Plato" 
said, when he was a boy, of the life of Socrates is most 



Introduction 



fortunate. I cannot but think that, if we had not his 
name, if this manuscript had struggled through anony- 
mously and were printed to-day, we should have sense 
enough, wit enough, and insight enough to recognize 
the author. 

The reader will be curious to compare the paper with 
the sketch of the life of Socrates in the essay on Plato 
in <' Representative Men." The date of the publica- 
tion of the essay is 1876, but, probably, much of it had 
been put on paper before that time. 

In reading the two papers, I have been led to ask my- 
self whether the careful study which, for the preparation 
of the first, he gave to the life of Socrates, did not do 
something in the direction of the studies of his junior 
and senior years, and so if it did not lead up to the sec- 
ond paper. But such speculations are hardly more than 
fanciful. It is he who said, when he was not yet thirty 
years old, «* Milton does not love moral perfection more 
than I, That which I cannot yet declare has been my 
angel from childhood until now." Why should we not 
expect of the boy who was fast growing into such a 
manhood, that he should write, if he could, on the posi- 
tion of the study of ethical philosophy in his time ? 

The condition of ethical philosophy in 1821 was cer- 
tainly not very promising. In 1837, in the same col- 
lege, I had given to me for my study Paley's " Moral 
Philosophy," in which I was taught that I did right in 



Introduction 



the hope and expectation of being paid in heaven for 
my sacrifice. Things were no better sixteen years 
before. 

It would be idle to anticipate the pleasure with which 
the reader will follow these early essays, by pointing out 
some striking passages in which the early promise of the 
man may be observed. It is a pity that we have no 
contemporary record of the occasion in which he read 
these essays before an audience of undergraduates. The 
will required that the essays should be so read. At the 
present time, they are read ' < when and where the dean 
requests." At times, there has been a certain difficulty, 
I believe, in finding an audience. But had there been 
any spirit of prophecy in the classes which graduated in 
1820 and 1 821, there would have been no doubt but that 
they would have filled the modest chapel of the time to 
hear Ralph Waldo Emerson lecture on Socrates or on 
ethical philosophy. 

Edward E. Hale. 



Note. — Since this introduction was in type, Mr. Josiah P. 
Quincy has shown to me the original gold medal which his father 
received as a first prize when Mr. Emerson took a second. The 
medal bears the head of Bowdoin on the obverse. This shows 
that the die has been lost in recent times, if the traditions above 
referred to were well founded. 



The Character of Socrates 



The Character of Socrates 

[A Bowdoin Prize Dissertation of 1820] 

<' Guide my way- 
Through fair Lyceum's walk, the green retreats 
Of Academus, and the thymy vale 
Where, oft enchanted with Socratic sounds, 
Ilissus pure devolved his tuneful stream 
In gentler murmurs. From the blooming store 
Of these auspicious fields, may I unblamed 
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn 
My native clime. "" 

THE philosophy of the human mind has of 
late years commanded an unusual degree of 
attention from the curious and the learned. The 
increasing notice which it obtains is owing 
much to the genius of those men who have raised 
themselves with the science to general regard, 
but chiefly, as its patrons contend, to the uncon- 
trolled progress of human improvement. The 
zeal of its advocates, however, in other respects 
commendable, has sinned in one particular, — they 
have laid a little too much self-complacent stress 



The Character of Socrates 



on the merit and success of their own unselfish 
exertions, and in their first contempt of the absurd 
and trifling speculations of former metaphysicians, 
appear to have confounded sophists and true phil- 
osophers, and to have been disdainful of some 
who have enlightened the world and marked out 
a path for future advancement. 

Indeed, the giant strength of modern improve- 
ment is more indebted to the early wisdom of 
Thales and Socrates and Plato than is generally 
allowed, or perhaps than modern philosophers 
have been well aware. 

This supposition is strongly confirmed by a 
consideration of the character of Socrates, which, 
in every view, is uncommon and admirable. To 
one who should read his life as recorded by 
Xenophon and Plato without previous knowl- 
edge of the man, the extraordinary character and 
circumstances of his biography would appear 
incredible. It would seem that antiquity had 
endeavored to fable forth a being clothed with 
all the perfection which the purest and brightest 
imagination could conceive or combine, bestow- 



The Character of Socrates 



ing upon the piece only so much of mortahty as 
to make it tangible and imitable. Even in this 
imaginary view of the character, we have been 
inclined to wonder that men, without a revelation, 
by the light of reason only, should set forth a 
model of moral perfection which the wise of any 
age would do well to imitate. And, further, it 
might ofFer a subject of ingenious speculation, to 
mark the points of difference, should modern 
fancy, with all its superiority of philosophic and 
theological knowledge, endeavor to create a sim- 
ilar paragon. But this is foreign to our purpose. 
It will be well, in reviewing the character of 
Socrates, to mark the age in which he lived, as 
the moral and political circumstances of the times 
would probably exert an important and immediate 
influence on his opinions and character. The 
dark ages of Greece, from the settlement of the 
colonies to the Trojan War, had long closed. 
The young republics had been growing in 
strength, population, and territory, digesting their 
constitutions and building up their name and 
importance. The Persian War, that hard but 



The Character of Socrates 



memorable controversy of rage and spite, con- 
flicting with energetic and disciplined independ- 
ence, had shed over their land an effulgence of 
glory which richly deserved all that applause 
which after ages have bestowed. It was a stern 
trial of human effort, and the Greeks might be 
pardoned if, in their intercourse with less glorious 
nations, they carried the record of their long tri- 
umph too far to conciliate national jealousies. 
The aggrandizement of Greece which followed 
this memorable war was the zenith of its powers 
and splendor, and ushered in the decay and fall 
of the political fabric. 

The age of Pericles has caused Athens to be 
remembered in history. At no time during her 
existence were the arts so flourishing, popular 
taste and feeling so exalted and refined, or her 
political relations so extensive and respected. 
The Athenian people were happy at home, rev- 
erenced abroad, — and at the head of the Grecian 
confederacy. Their commerce was lucrative, 
and their wars few and honorable. In this mild 
period it was to be expected that literature and 



The Character of Socrates 



science would grow up vigorously under the fos- 
tering patronage of taste and power. The 
Olympian games awakened the emulation of 
genius and produced the dramatic efforts of 
iEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristoph- 
anes, and philosophy came down from heaven 
to Anaxagoras, Archelaus, and Socrates. 

Such was the external and obvious condition 
of Athens, — apparently prosperous, but a con- 
cealed evil began to display specific and disastrous 
consequences. The sophists had acquired the 
brightest popularity and influence, by the exhibi- 
tion of those superficial accomplishments whose 
novelty captivated the minds of an ingenious 
people, among whom true learning was yet in 
its infancy. Learning was not yet loved for its 
own sake. It was prized as a saleable com- 
modity. The sophists bargained their literature, 
such as it was, for a price ; and this price, ever 
exorbitant, was yet regulated by the ability of the 
scholar. 

That this singular order of men should pos- 
sess so strong an influence over the Athenian 



The Character of Socrates 



public argues no strange or unnatural state of 
society, as has been sometimes represented ; it is 
the proper and natural result of improvement in 
a money-making community. By the prosperity 
of their trading interests all the common wants 
of society were satisfied, and it was natural that 
the mind should next urge its claim to cultivation, 
and the surplus of property be expended for the 
gratification of the intellect. This has been 
found true in the growth of all nations, — that 
after successful trade, literature soon throve well, 
— provided the human mind was cramped by no 
disadvantages of climate or " skyey influences." 
The Athenian sophists adapted their course of 
pursuits of knowledge, with admirable skill, to the 
taste of the people. They first approved them- 
selves masters of athletic exercises, for the want 
of which no superiority of intellect, however 
consummate, would compensate in the Grecian 
republics. They then applied themselves to the 
cultivation of forensic eloquence, which enabled 
them to discourse volubly, if ignorantly, on any 
subject and on any occasion, however unexpected. 



The Character of Socrates 



To become perfect in this grand art, it was 
necessary to acquire, by habit and dihgence, an 
imperturbable self-possession which could con- 
front, unabashed, the rudest accident ; and more- 
over, a flood of respondent and exclamatory 
phrases, skilfully constructed to meet the emer- 
gencies of a diflB^cult conversation. After this 
laudable education had thus far accomplished its 
aim, the young sophist became partially con- 
versant with the limited learning of the age in all 
its subjects. The poets, the historians, the sages, 
the writers on the useful arts, each and all 
occupied by turns his glancing observation. And 
when the motley composition of his mind was 
full, it only remained to stamp upon his character 
some few peculiarities, — to make him what the 
moderns have called a " mannerist," — and his 
professional education was considered complete. 
When the sophists made themselves known, 
they assumed a sanctity of manners, which av/ed 
familiarity and very conveniently cloaked their 
sinister designs. Pythagoras, after his persever- 
ing exertions for the attainment of knowledge. 



lo The Character of Socrates 

after his varied and laborious travels, had estab- 
lished a romantic school at Crotona with institu- 
tions resembling free masonry, which had planted 
in Greece prepossessions favorable to philosophy. 
The sophists availed themselves of their preju- 
dices, and amused the crowds who gathered at 
the rumor of novelty, with riddles and defini- 
tions, with gorgeous theories of existence, — 
splendid fables and presumptuous professions. 
They laid claim to all knowledge, and craftily 
continued to steal the respect of a credulous 
populace, and to enrich themselves by pretending 
to instruct the children of the opulent. When 
they had thus fatally secured their own emolu- 
ment, they rapidly threw ofF the assumed rigidity 
of their morals, and, under covert of a sort of 
perfumed morality, indulged themselves and their 
followers in abominable excesses, degrading the 
mind and debauching virtue. Unhappily for 
Greece, the contaminating vices of Asiatic lux- 
ury, the sumptuous heritage of Persian War, 
had but too naturally seconded the growing 
depravity. 



I 



The Character of Socrates ii 

The youth of great men is seldom marked by 
any pecuharities which arrest observation. Their 
minds have secret wordings ; and, though they 
feel and enjoy the cor sciousness of genius, they 
seldom betray prognostics of greatness. Many 
who were cradled by misfortune and want have 
reproached the sun as he rose and went down, 
for amidst the baseness of circumstances their 
large minds were unsatisfied, unfed ; many have 
bowed lowly to those whose names their own 
were destined to outlive ; many have gone down 
to their graves in obscurity, for fortune withheld 
them from eminence, and to beg they were 
ashamed. 

Of the son of the sculptor and midwife we 
only know that he became eminent as a sculptor, 
but displaying genius for higher pursuits, Crito, 
who afterward became his disciple, procured for 
him admission to the schools and to such educa- 
tion as the times furnished. But the rudiments 
of his character and his homely virtues were 
formed in the workshop, secluded from tempta- 
tion ; and those inward operations of his strong 



12 The Character of Socrates 

mind were begun which were afterwards matured 
in the ripeness of life. 

We shall proceed to examine the character of 
the philosopher, after pre mising that we do not 
intend to give the detail of his life, but shall occa- 
sionally adduce facts of biography as illustrative 
of the opinions we have formed. With regard 
to the method pursued in the arrangement of our 
remarks, we must observe that sketches of the 
character of an individual can admit of little 
definiteness of plan, but we shall direct our atten- 
tion to a consideration of the leading features of 
his mind, and to a few of his moral excellences 
which went to make up the great aggregate of 
his character. 

The chief advantage which he owed to nature, 
the source of his philosophy and the foundation 
of his character, was a large share of plain good 
sense, — a shrewdness which would not suffer 
itself to be duped, and withal, concealed under 
a semblance of the frankest simplicity, which 
beguiled the objects of his pursuit into conversa- 
tion and confidence which met his wishes. This 



I 



The Character of Socrates 13 

was the faculty which enabled him to investigate 
his own character, to learn the natural tendency 
and bias of his own genius, and thus to perfectly 
control his mental energies. 

There is a story of Socrates, related by Cicero, 
which militates somewhat with the opinion we 
have formed of his mind, — that when a physi- 
ognomist, after having examined his features, 
had pronounced him a man of bad passions and 
depraved character, Socrates reproved the indig- 
nation of his disciples by acknowledging the 
truth of the assertion so far as nature was con- 
cerned, saying that it had been the object of his 
life to eradicate these violent passions. This 
might have been merely a trick of art, and as 
such is consistent with his character. We can- 
not view it in any other light ; for although it is 
very probable that natural malignity might have 
darkened his early life, yet no assertion of his 
own would convince us, in contradiction with 
his whole life and instruction, that he was ever 
subject to the fiercer passions. Such, too, was 
the order of his intellect. He was a man of 



14 The Character of Socrates 

Strong and vivid conceptions, but utterly desti- 
tute of fancy. Still, he possessed originaHty and 
sometimes sublimity of thought. His povi^erful 
mind had surmounted the unavoidable errors of 
education, and had retained those acquirements 
which are found applicable to the uses of com- 
mon life, whilst he had discarded whatever was 
absurd or unprofitable. 

He studied the nature and explored the des- 
tinies of men with a chastised enthusiasm. Not- 
withstanding the sober, dispassionate turn of 
mind which we have mentioned, he is not un- 
moved at all times ; when he enters into the 
discussion upon the immortality of the soul and 
the nature and attributes of Deity, he forgets his 
quibbles upon terms, and his celebrated irony, 
and sensibly warms and expands with his theme. 
This was aided by the constant activity of his 
mind, which endowed him with energy of thought 
and language, and its discipline never suffered 
him to obtrude an unguarded emotion. 

In perfect accordance with this view of his 
mind is his conduct under circumstances related 



I 



The Character of Socrates 15 

by Plato. In prison, whilst under condemnation, 
he was directed in vision to seek the favor of the 
Muses. This new discipline enjoined upon him 
was utterly incongruous with the temper and 
habits of feeling usual to the philosopher. His 
plain sense and logical mind, which would reduce 
everything, however impressive, to mathematical 
measurement, were little conversant, we may sup- 
pose, with poetical visions. In fact, we could 
not suppose a character more diametrically oppo- 
site to the soul of the poet, in all the gradations 
of cultivated mind, than the soul of Socrates. 
The food and occupation of the former has 
to do with golden dreams, — airy nothings, 
bright personifications of glory and joy and evil, 
— and we imagine him sitting apart, like Brahma, 
moulding magnificent forms, clothing them with 
beauty and grandeur. The latter dwells on 
earth, dealing plainly and bluntly with men and 
men's actions, instructing them what to do and 
to forbear ; and even when he desires to lift his 
tone, it is only to mingle with higher reality, but 
never forsaking safe,but tedious,paths of certainty. 



1 6 The Character of Socrates 



All this we know, and the manner which Soc- 
rates selected to perform the task assigned him 
creates neither disappointment nor surprise ; for 
perhaps in the biographical annals of his country 
there was no intellect whose leading feature more 
nearly resembled his own than ^sop, whose 
fables he undertook to versify. 

It may well be supposed that a mind thus cast 
was eminently calculated to instruct, and his 
didactic disposition always rendered him rather 
the teacher than the companion of his friends. 
Add to all this an unrivalled keenness of pene- 
tration into the character of others, and hence 
arose his ruling motive in all his intercourse with 
men ; it was not to impart literary knowledge or 
information in science or art, but to lay open to 
his own view the human mind, and all its unac- 
knowledged propensities, its weak and fortified 
positions, and the springs of human action. All 
this was achieved by the power of his art, and it 
enabled him easily to grasp the mind, and mould 
it at will, and to unite and direct the wandering 
energies of the human soul. 



1 



The Character of Socrates 17 

His mind was cultivated, though his learning 
was Httle. He was acquainted with the works 
of the most eminent poets of his country, but as 
he seems never to have made Hterature his study, 
the limited erudition he possessed was probably 
gleaned from the declamations of the sophists^ 
whose pride never scrupled to borrow abundantly 
from the superfluous light which departed genius 
afforded. His own acquisitions had been made 
in the workshops of the Athenian artisans, in the 
society of Aspasia and Theombrota, and by in- 
telligent, experienced observation. 

Though living in Athens, he acquired little 
taste for the elegance or pride of life ; surrounded 
as he was by the living marbles which all suc- 
ceeding ages have consented to admire, and then 
just breathing from the hand of the artist, he 
appeared utterly dead to their beauties, and used 
them only as casual illustrations of an argu- 
ment. In the gratification of his desire to learn 
and know mankind, he visited the poor and the 
rich, the virtuous and the degraded, and set him- 
self to explore all the varieties of circumstances 



1 8 The Character of Socrates 

occurring in a great city, that he might discover 
what were "the elements which furnish forth 
creation/' 

We may judge from the acquaintances of the 
philosopher what were the minds most congenial 
to his own. Of his great contemporaries, — 
Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, — Euripides 
alone was his pupil and friend. He never at- 
tended the theatre only as his tragedies were to 
be performed. This warmth of feeling for the 
chaste and tender dramatist should defend his 
mind from the imputation of utter deafness to 
taste and beauty. The majestic and sublime 
genius of Sophocles was not so intimately allied 
to the every-day morals of Socrates ; Euripides 
knew and taught more human nature in its com- 
mon aspects. The oracle of Delphos justified 
his choice in that remarkable declaration : 
^o(}>6^ So<^o/cX^9, (TO^ayrepo^ ^vpLTrcSr]^, av- 
8p(ovT€ iravTOiVy ^co/cpciTT)^ ao(p(OTaTO<;. 

The fathers, with their usual grudge against 
the heathen oracles, formed singular opinions 
respecting this extraordinary decree. '' The 



The Character of Socrates 19 

great Origen is of the opinion that the Devil, 
when he delivered that sentence, by giving Soc- 
rates those partners purposely obscured his glory, 
whilst he was in some measure forced to applaud 
it.'* 

We have attempted to draw the outline of one 
of the most remarkable minds which human 
history has recorded, and which was rendered 
extraordinary by its wonderful adaptation to the 
times in which he lived. We must now hasten 
to our great task of developing the moral superi- 
ority of the philosopher. 

A manly philosophy has named fortitude, 
temperance, and prudence its prime virtues. All 
belonged, in a high degree of perfection, to the 
son of Sophroniscus, but fortitude more particu- 
larly. Perhaps it was not a natural virtue, but 
the first-fruits of his philosophy. A mind whose 
constitution was built up like his — the will of 
the philosopher moulding the roughest materials 
into form and order — might create its own 
virtues, and set them in array to compose the 
aggregate of character. He was not like other 



20 The Character of Socrates 

men, the sport of circumstances, but by the per- 
severing habits of forbearance and self-denial 
he had acquired that control over his whole being 
which enabled him to hold the same even, 
unchangeable temperament in all the extremes of 
his fortunes. This exemption from the influ- 
ences of circumstances in the moral world is 
almost like exemption from the law of gravita- 
tion in the natural economy. The exemplifica- 
tions of this fortitude are familiar. When all 
the judges of the senate, betraying an unworthy 
pusillanimity, gave way to an iniquitous demand 
of the populace, Socrates alone disdained to sac- 
rifice justice to the fear of the people. 

On another occasion, in the forefront of a 
broken battle, Alcibiades owed his life to the firm- 
ness of his master. Patriotic steadfastness in 
resistance to the oppression of the Thirty Tyrants 
is recorded to his honor. Although we are un- 
willing to multiply these familiar instances, we 
would not be supposed to undervalue that milder 
fortitude which Diogenes Laertius has lauded, 
and which clouded his domestic joys. The vie- 



The Character of Socrates 21 

tory over human habits and passions which shall 
bring them into such subjection as to be sub- 
servient to the real advantage of the possessor 
is that necessary virtue w^hich philosophers de- 
nominate temperance. We are led to speak of 
this particularly because its existence in the char- 
acter of Socrates has been questioned. 

The impurity of public morals and the preva- 
lence of a debasing vice has left a festering 
reproach on the name of Athens, which deepens 
as the manners of civilized nations have altered 
and improved. Certain equivocal expressions 
and paragraphs in the Dialogues of Plato have 
formerly led many to fasten the stigma on Soc- 
rates. This abomination has likewise been laid 
to the charge of Virgil, and probably with as little 
justice. Socrates taught that every soul was an 
eternal, immutable form of beauty in the divine 
mind, and that the most beautiful mortals ap- 
proached nearest to that celestial mould ; that it 
was the honor and delight of human intellect to 
contemplate this heau ideal^ and that this was 
better done through the medium of earthly per- 



2 2 The Character of Socrates 

fection. For this reason this sober enthusiast 
associated with such companions as Alcibiades, 
Critias, and other beautiful Athenians. 

A late article in the ^arterly Review^ the 
better to vindicate the character of Aristophanes 
from the reproach attached to him as the author 
of " The Clouds," has taken some pains to attack 
the unfortunate butt of the comedian's buffoon- 
ery. It is unpleasant at this day to find facts 
misrepresented in order to conform to a system, 
and unwarranted insinuations wantonly thrown 
out to vilify the most pure philosopher of an- 
tiquity, for no other purpose than to add the 
interest of novelty to a transient publication. It 
is a strong, and one would think an unanswer- 
able, argument against the allegation, that his 
unsparing calumniator, the bitter Aristophanes, 
should have utterly omitted this grand reproach, 
while he wearies his sarcasm on more insignifi- 
cant follies. Nor did he pass it by because it 
was not accounted a crime, as if the fashion 
of the age justifies the enormity ; for in this 
identical play he introduces his Just Orator, 



The Character of Socrates 23 

declaiming against this vice in particular and 
remembering with regret the better manners of 
better times, when lascivious gestures were un- 
studied and avoided and the cultivated strength 
of manhood was devoted to austere, laborious 
virtue. The whole character and public instruc- 
tions of Socrates ought to have shielded him from 
this imputation, while they manifest its utter 
improbability. When the malignity of an early 
historian had given birth to the suspicion, the 
fathers, who often bore no good-will to Socrates 
(whose acquired greatness eclipsed their natural 
parts), often employed their pens to confirm and 
diffuse it, and it owes its old currency chiefly to 
their exertions. 

We shall not speak particularly of the prudence 
of Socrates. He possessed it abundantly, in the 
philosophical signification of the term, — but 
none of that timorous caution which might inter- 
fere with the impulses of patriotism, duty, or 
courage. 

It seems to have been a grand aim of his life 
to become a patriot, — a reformer of the abuses 



24 The Character of Socrates 

of morals and virtue which had become a national 
calamity. He saw his country embarrassed, and 
plunging without help in the abyss of moral 
degradation. Dissipation and excess made 
Athens their home and revelled with impunity. 
'' Give us a song of Anacreon or Alcaeus ! " was 
the common cry. A frightful voluptuousness 
had entwined itself about the devoted city, and 
its ultimate baneful consequences had begun 
their work. In these circumstances, when all 
eyes appeared to be blinded to the jeopardy by 
the fatal incantations of vagrant vine-clad Muses, 
this high-toned moralist saw the havoc that was 
in operation. He desired to restore his country- 
men ; he would not treacherously descend to 
flatter them. 

To accomplish this, he selected a different 
course from the ordinary plans of young men. 
To an Athenian entering on Hfe and aspiring 
after eminence, the inducements to virtue were 
weak and few, but to vice numberless and strong. 
Popularity was to be acquired among these de- 
generate republicans; not as formerly among 



The Character of Socrates 25 

their great ancestors, by toilsome struggles for 
pre-eminence in purity, by discipline and austere 
virtue, but by squandered wealth, profligacy, and 
flattery of the corrupt populace. What, then, 
had an obscure young man, poor and friendless, 
to expect, sternly binding himself to virtue, and 
attacking the prevalent vices and prejudices of a 
great nation ? This was certainly no unworthy 
prototype of the circumstances of the founders 
of the Christian religion. He devoted himself 
entirely to the instruction of the young, aston- 
ishing them with a strange system of doctrines 
which inculcated the love of poverty, the for- 
giveness of injuries, with other virtues equally 
unknown and unpractised. 

His philosophy was a source of good sense 
and of sublime and practical morality. He directs 
his disciples to know and practise the purest 
principles of virtue ; to be upright, benevolent, 
and brave; to shun vice, — to Orjpiov^ — the 
dreadful monster which was roaring through 
earth for his prey. The motives which he pre- 
sented for their encouragement were as pure as 



The Character of Socrates 



the life they recommended. Such inducements 
were held up as advancement in the gradations 
of moral and intellectual perfection, — the proud 
delight of becoming more acceptable in the eye 
of Divinity, and the promise to virtue of com- 
munications from other and higher spheres of 
existence. The notions of the nature of God 
which Socrates entertained were infinitely more 
correct and adequate than those of any other 
philosopher before him whose opinions have 
come down to us. 

Additional praise is due to him, since he alone 
dared to express his sentiments on the subject 
and his infidelity to the popular religion. '' What 
is God ? " said the disciples to Plato. " It is 
hard," answered the philosopher, " to know, and 
impossible to divulge." Here is that reluctance 
which timorous believers were obliged to display. 
" What is God ? " said they to Socrates, and 
he replied, " The great God himself, who has 
formed the universe and sustains the stupendous 
work whose every part is finished with the ut- 
most goodness and harmony ; he who preserves 



The Character of Socrates 27 

them perfect in immortal vigor and causes them 
to obey him with unfailing punctuality and a 
rapidity not to be followed by the imagination — 
this God makes himself sufficiently visible by the 
endless wonders of which he is the author, but 
continues always invisible in himself." This is 
explicit and noble. He continues, " Let us not, 
then, refuse to believe even what we do not 
behold, and let us supply the defect of our 
corporeal eyes by using those of the soul ; but 
especially let us learn to render the just homage 
of respect and veneration to that Divinity whose 
will it seems to be that we should have no other 
perception of him but by his effects in our favor. 
Now this adoration, this homage, consists in 
pleasing him, and we can only please him by 
doing his will." 

These are the exalted sentiments and motives 
which Socrates enforced upon men, not in insu- 
lated or extraordinary portions of his system but 
through the whole compass of his instructions. 
Convinced that the soul is endowed with energies 
and powers, by which, if well directed, she strives 



28 The Character of Socrates 

and climbs continually towards perfection, it was 
Ris object to stimulate and guide her ; to quicken 
her aspirations with new motives, to discover 
and apply whatever might spur on conscientious 
endeavor or back its efForts with omnipotent 
strength. He wished the care and improvement 
of the soul to be of chief concern, that of the 
body comparatively trifling. The natural effect 
of his philosophy was to form an accomplished 
pagan, — so perfect a man as was compatible 
with the state of society ; and this state should not 
be underrated. A nation of disciples of Socrates 
would suppose a state of human advancement 
which modern ambition and zeal, with all its 
superiority of knowledge and religion, might 
never hope to attain. And, could Athens have 
expelled her sophists and corruptors, and by ex- 
hibiting respect for his instructions have extended 
the influence of her most mighty mind until the 
chastity of her manners was restored and the 
infirmities of her dotage displaced by active vir- 
tues, — had her citizens then become the converts 
and advocates of Socratic sentiments, — she might 



The Character of Socrates 



29 



have flourished and triumphed on till this day, a 
free and admirable commonwealth of philoso- 
phers, and looked with enviable unconcern on 
all the revolutions about her that have agitated 
and swallowed up nations ; and Philip of Mace- 
don and Mummius of Rome might have slept in 
obscurity. But this is digression, and we can 
offer no apology except the pleasure which such 
a vision affords. We must now proceed to say 
something of his ambiguous genius. 

The haifJLcov of Socrates partakes so much 
of the marvellous that there is no cause for 
wonder arising from the difference of opinion 
manifested in its discussion. Those who love 
to ascribe the most to inspiration in the prophets 
of God's revealed religion claim this mysterious 
personage as akin to the ministering spirits of 
the Hebrew faith. Those who, with Xenophon, 
know not of this similarity, or who do not find 
foundation for this belief, look upon the haCfioDV 
only as a personification of natural sagacity; 
some have charitably supposed that the philoso- 
pher himself was deluded into a false conviction 



30 



The Character of Socrates 



that he enjoyed a pecuHar communication with 
the gods by the intervention of a supernatural 
being, — learned their will and accomplished their 
ends. These supposed claims which Socrates 
laid to divine inspiration have induced many to 
carry their veneration to a more marvellous 
extent than we can safely follow. 

We are willing to allow that they have 
plausible arguments who have considered the 
philosopher in the more imposing view, as an 
especial light of the world commissioned from 
heaven and as a distant forerunner of the Saviour 
himself. Dr. Priestley, with a bolder hand, has 
instituted a comparison between Socrates and 
the Saviour himself. We are not disposed to 
enter upon these discussions, as they do not lead 
to truth and serve only to bewilder. It is prob- 
able that the philosopher adopted the successful 
artifice of Lycurgus, referring his instructions to 
higher agents in order to enforce their obedi- 
ence. With regard to the innocence of the 
artifice, although perhaps no philosopher has a 
sincerer reverence for truth, yet the doctrine 



The Character of Socrates 31 

was but too common at that time that they 
were free to promulgate useful falsehoods ; and 
if he imagined that the necessity of the case 
might acquit Lycurgus, certainly a falsehood of 
a more heinous nature would at present have 
been justifiable. 

The death of this illustrious man has chiefly 
entitled him to the veneration of mankind. The 
mild magnanimity which could forgive and justify 
its unjust oppressors; the benevolence which 
forgot self and its pains and necessities in the 
ardor of instructing others ; the grandeur of soul 
which disdained self-preservation purchased at 
the expense of inflexible principle ; the courage 
which stooped not in extremity — these are vir- 
tues which the human understanding always 
must approve, and which compel admiration. 
We have heard much of triumphant and honor- 
able deaths at the stake — or by sudden violence, 
or from natural causes — of men who have died 
in martyrdom for liberty, religion, or love ; these 
are glorious indeed and excellent. But without 
taking into consideration the allowance to be 



32 The Character of Socrates 

made for exaggeration and the love of the marvel- 
lous, we should attribute much to the influence 
of despair. An enthusiast is hurried suddenly 
from family and friendship and all the atmosphere 
of social life — his joys and hopes and habits — 
to the place of torture and execution, to pay the 
penalty of adherence to a tenet. The quick and 
fearful change of circumstances bewilders and 
overwhelms a mind easily afFected by things ex- 
ternal. Morbid sensibility takes the place of 
sanity of mind, and, but partially conscious of 
his conduct, he mechanically repeats the language 
strongly written on his memory ; and it follows 
that the ignorant mistake his imbecility for fear- 
lessness, and his insensibility for blissful antici- 
pation of approaching glory. Such cases are by 
no means improbable, and a strict scrutiny of 
miraculous last words and dying speeches will 
find them. But in the sacrifice of Socrates there 
is no shadow of a doubt on which incredulity 
might attach itself. The firmness and uncon- 
cern with which he regards the approach of death 
are truly astonishing ; there does not appear to 



The Character of Socrates 33 

have been the slightest accession of excitement, 
not the alteration of a degree in his mental tem- 
perature. He met his agitated friends with the 
usual calm discourse and deliberate reasoning. 
He spoke upon the subject, it is true, when they 
frequently introduced it, but willingly acquiesced 
in the ordinations of superior intelligence, and 
employed his reason to unveil the sublime pur- 
poses of Providence. 

A fortunate superstition of the Athenians fur- 
nished him with the opportunity of manifesting 
the sincerity and greatness of his philosophy, as 
the length of time between his condemnation 
and death enabled him to hold frequent inter- 
course with his disciples. Human sincerity has 
seldom passed a severer ordeal than did the prin- 
ciples of Socrates. Notwithstanding the minute 
accuracy with which his every action has been 
detailed, we know not that the fortitude of which 
we have spoken ever abandoned him to a mo- 
ment's melancholy. We behold him upbraid- 
ing the pusillanimity, or soothing the sorrows, of 
those friends whose office it should have been, 



34 The Character of Socrates 

in the ordinary course of circumstances, to alle- 
viate his own dying agonies. The dignity and 
grandeur of soul, everywhere predominant, is 
sustained to the conclusion of the great tragedy, 
till we are irresistibly led to bestow upon the 
pagan the praise of a perfect man. 

It is melancholy to turn from this heroic event, 
this mighty giving-up of the ghost, to the dark 
history of the causes and agents of so foul a mur- 
der. We should avoid all recurrence to it, and 
save mankind the shock and blush of recollection, 
did not we think that some palliation might 
be pleaded to soften this black disgrace on a 
name we so much love to venerate as that of 
Athens, 

When the philosopher began life there was 
a freshness of glory diffused over his country 
which no after times equalled. There had been 
magnificent success in arms and arts, and 
achievements which overshadowed the great 
names of their own romance, — Hercules and 
Theseus and Achilles. These stupendous suc- 
cesseS) to which modern history does not pre- 



The Character of Socrates 35 

tend to offer a parallel, had become familiar to 
them, and led them to that independence of 
character the ultimate effect of which was that 
caprice which distinguished the people of Athens. 
It was natural, further beholding the full dis- 
play of their might, which had been thus glori- 
ously exhibited, that these republicans should 
acquire confidence in themselves, a fearlessness 
of contending interests about them, and of the 
consequences of their own actions, which was 
imparted from the political community as a 
whole to each separate state, and from the state 
to each individual. Such countrymen had the 
youthful Socrates. But he lived to see them 
degenerate, and crouch to the despotism of the 
Thirty ; to submit to defeat abroad, and to fac- 
tion at home. All this, however, had little 
effect on that caprice whose cause we have 
mentioned. When the anarchy of the Thirty 
Tyrants was over, the impatience with which the 
people remembered their own submission only 
increased the action of their caprice ; nor is it 
extraordinary if an overflowing zeal to approve 



36 The Character of Socrates 

themselves freemen should have made judgment 
hasty. 

We should rejoice if the death of Socrates 
were referable merely to this impetuous spirit of 
liberty ; but it belongs chiefly to that general 
debasement of morals which it was the passion 
of Socrates to attack and reprehend. Their 
progress is sufficiently marked by the successive 
characters of the comedy, from its primal inno- 
cence to its third stage, when that grossness 
became fashionable which stains the dramas of 
Aristophanes. 

But not only their anger at the man who 
reproached them with their vices induced them 
to offer violence to him, but likewise his infi- 
delity to the religion of their fathers, and intro- 
duction of new doctrines. Grosser infidelity 
than that for which Socrates suffered, and which 
his predecessors Anaxagoras and Archelaus had 
wisdom enough to entertain but dared not avow, 
was openly proclaimed in the licentious theatre, 
and applauded by the multitude. But there is 



The Character of Socrates 37 

some appearance of plausibility in the apology 
for that inconsistency. 

In the theatre, impiety excited strong feeling, 
and the people's gratitude to the poet who could 
so faithfully amuse them would easily find apol- 
ogy for more glaring impropriety. But the phil- 
osopher was the teacher of youth, who should 
do away with every improper impression, and 
might not be allowed to infringe upon the faith 
they had been accustomed to venerate. Besides, 
they came to the lectures of the sage with dis- 
passionate minds, and there was no purpose of 
warm feeling to be answered which might par- 
don the introduction of what they termed pro- 
fanity. We must confess that it is hard to 
check and change the free tide of an ancient 
religion. When old prejudices which man en- 
tertains of his Maker are fixed ; when he is 
reasoning himself into a consent to the laws of 
God which govern him ; when he has incorpo- 
rated the names and attributes of those who 
know and make his destiny with all his views 



38 The Character of Socrates 

of existence ; — be this religion bad or good, 
be its tendency what it may, till he is con- 
vinced of its error he will repel with indigna- 
tion the power that came to rend and shatter 
the whole constitution of his soul. 

The memory of Socrates was vindicated from 
calumny by the subsequent sorrow of the Athe- 
nians, who endeavored to atone for their crime 
by honors splendid if unavailing. Lysippus 
executed the costly tribute of their respect, 
and the vengeance of the senate fell upon the 
accusers, in punishment adequate to their guilt. 

Socrates led a sanctimonious life. He was 
abstemious, and his whole demeanor corre- 
sponded with the coarseness of his features and 
the deformity of his person. By harsh disci- 
pline he endeavored to subdue his corporeal 
wants so far as to make them merely subservi- 
ent to the mental advantage, yet never carrying 
it to anything like that excess of Indian super- 
stition which worships God by outraging nature. 
This unnatural expression of courage has been 



The Character of Socrates 39 

called an assertion of the dignity of man. Hu- 
man nature wants no such champions. 

We must hasten to take our leave of the 
illustrious Grecian. As the head of the Ionic 
school, he did more to found true philosophy on 
its legitimate basis than any other master. When 
we consider how much this individual fulfilled 
of the great duty which every man owes to his 
fellowmen, — that of crowding into a little life 
the most extended benefit, and contributing the 
strength of his soul to the aggrandizement of 
the species, — we shall acknowledge that few 
men can cope with him. Lord Bacon, the 
foremost of those few, did not come up to his 
irreproachable character. 



The Present State of Ethical 
Philosophy 



The Present State of Ethical 
Philosophy 

[A Bowdoin Prize Dissertation of 1821J 

WHEN the present system of things began 
its being, and the eternal relations of mat- 
ter were established, the constitution of moral 
science was yet to be founded. It began with 
the social human condition, — with man's first 
sense of duty to his Maker and to his fellow- 
man. It has remained in permanent eternal 
principles, designed to regulate the present life 
and to conduct the human race to their unseen 
and final destinies. Its development was later : 
with rude and unworthy beginnings, in which 
Advancement was long scarcely perceptible and 
always uncertain, and blessed with no charter of 
exemption from the difficulties of error. For a 
time it was extricating itself from the conse- 
quences of mistake, and improving its condi- 
tion, sometimes, however, making a false step 
and plunging deeper into gulfs of absurdity and 



44 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

pollution; but it has finally placed itself on 
respectable ground in the circle of human 
knowledge. 

It were a bold and useless enquiry, and lead- 
ing back beyond the limits of human informa- 
tion, certainly claiming the apology of interest 
and importance, to ask what surpassing mind 
conceives the germ of moral science, or how 
it was communicated from heaven to earth. It 
was the beautiful and eternal offspring of other 
worlds, and conferred on this by interposition 
which no discoveries might anticipate. 

We shall briefly sketch the history of ethical 
philosophy, and notice some prominent distinc- 
tions which separate ancient from modern ethics, 
before we proceed to consider the present state 
of the science. 

We find irregular and casual hints of moral 
science thrown out by the most distinguished 
ancient Greek poets, descending, as is supposed, 
remotely from primeval revelation. We know 
of none, however, among the first schools of 
Grecian philosophy, who set himself apart for 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 45 

the sublime purpose of gathering up the rela- 
tions which bind man to the unirerse about him. 
Ethics were not thus early separated from the 
immature, misunderstood sciences of logic and 
metaphysics. The world was not old enough 
to have accurately parcelled and distributed her 
science into professions. The amassed stores of 
experience were not then overflowing her garners, 
as now, when ages of industry have elapsed to 
define and multiply the offices of her stewards. 
Believing, as the philosophical ancients appear 
to have done, that the world as they found it has 
forever subsisted, and should continue to sub- 
sist, and that an inscrutable Fate overruled their 
destinies, who might make them, at pleasure, 
demigods or nonentities after death, they had 
but scanty encouragement for any grand and 
holy system which the ardor of virtue might 
induce them to form. Enthusiasm was chilled 
by the awful, unrevealing silence which pre- 
vailed over nature, and the sanctions which it 
supplied were inadequate to the support of a 
great religious faith. 



46 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy- 
Some, astonished at the lustre and enchant- 
ment with which this visible world was illu- 
mined and renewed, imagined the possibility of a 
more intimate connection between man and 
nature, and hence arose the mysteries of Eleu- 
sis, and the doctrine of natural magic. "The 
religion of Egypt," says Madame de Stael, " the 
system of emanations of the Hindoo, the Per- 
sian adoration of the elements, are vestiges of 
some curious attraction which united man to 
the universe." More fortunate is our condi- 
tion ; we recognize, with scientific delight, 
these attractions ; they are material, still they 
are the agency of Deity, and we value them as 
subservient to the great relations we seek and 
pant after, in moral affinities and intellectual 
attractions, from his moral influence. But the 
high and adventurous ends which these inter- 
preters proposed to themselves were unan- 
swered and afterwards perverted in corrupt times. 
Others among the ancients were fain to be- 
lieve the voice of long descended tradition, and 
awaited the return of the departed gods with 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 47 

the golden age of ample dispensations, and 
piously congratulated themselves on the security 
of human condition under the protection of 
Providence. Others threw themselves head- 
long on the comfortless creed of the administra- 
tion of chance, and scoffed at the hopes and 
terrors of all, as distempered dreams. 

To this frail and fleeting order of beings, per-^ 
secuted by the same natural obstructions to pos- 
sible aggrandizement, the progress of ages has 
unfolded, and immediate revelation sanctioned, 
a system of morality so complete and divine, 
and its promises attended with presentiments so 
rich of glory hereafter, as to exalt and assimi- 
late the species to the boldest forms of ideal 
excellence. 

We date the reduction of ethics to anything 
like a separate system from the time of Socrates. 

<* Socrates videtur, primus ab occultis rebus et a na- 
tura ipsa involutis, in quibus ante eum philosophi occu- 
pati fuerunt, philosophiam avocavisse et ad communem 
vitam adduxisse."* 

* Cic. Academ. Quaestioncs. 



48 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

Others before him had been ambitious of dic- 
tating laws for the government of kings and 
empires, or had locked up their results and con- 
clusions in costly manuscripts, so that their in- 
fluence upon the public was remote and insig- 
nificant. But this patriotic philosopher extended 
his wisdom to the body of the people in the 
first city of the world, and communicated to his 
disciples, not a hieroglyphical scripture to amuse 
the learned and awe the ignorant, but practical 
rules of life, adapted immediately to their con- 
dition and character, and little infected by the 
dogmas of the age. To the inquisitive he un- 
folded his system, and the laws and dependen- 
cies of morals. The grandeur of his views 
regarding the Deity far outwent those of his con- 
temporaries, whose malice exposed him to op- 
probrium as a blasphemer. There is an impor- 
tant circumstance attached to Socrates, which 
should not be forgotten in ethical history, — that 
from him is derived the modern custom of 
grounding virtue on a single principle. 

In treating of things which are just^ by which 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 49 

he meant virtuous^ he declares all things to be 
just which are agreeable to the laws. Modern 
improvement acknowledges this to be a flimsy 
and fallacious criterion, which must necessarily 
vary under every different government, and 
which sufficiently indicates the then imperfect 
state of morals. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
when Bacon's " Inductive Philosophy " tri- 
umphed over Aristotle, and the authority of the 
Grecian sage began to decline, multitudes united 
to accelerate his fall. The indignation of the zeal- 
ots against his errors went beyond bounds, and 
proceeded to abolish his empire in those depart- 
ments where it deserved to remain entire. Such 
violent zeal will probably create a reaction at 
some future period. The ethics of Aristotle 
have been little read, and serve only to aston- 
ish the occasional student with the comprehen- 
sion of remark and the advancement of knowl- 
edge which they contain. 

Aristotle pursues different views of morals 
from the moderns, and exhibits unexpected 



5o The Present State of Ethical Philosophy- 
trains of ideas, unconnected, indeed, by phil- 
osophical association ; he occupies himself long 
and tediously in ascertaining definitions and in 
drawing the boundary lines of moral and math- 
ematical philosophy, and thus manifests the in- 
fancy of the science, but discovers an intellect 
which w^as acute to devise and vast to compre- 
hend, — an intellect which belonged to that 
unequalled series commencing with Socrates 
and Plato, — alone, among the sons of Adam, 
qualified to institute and methodize the science 
of morality. 

After the ages of Grecian refinement, during 
which all the sciences burst into premature 
perfection, the Stoics exhibited rational and cor- 
rect views of ethics. Zeno, and, long after him, 
his illustrious disciples, Epictetus, Arrian, and 
M. Antoninus, maintained the doctrine of a 
supreme Intelligence, of his universal provi- 
dence, and of the obligation we are under to 
conform to his will and acquiesce in his deci- 
sions as necessarily right and good. 

Cicero, though the ornament and herald of 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 51 

philosophy in his age, did little for the advance- 
ment of its principles. Cicero admired an 
elegant philosophy. What was uncouth or 
profound he polished and simplified ; for no 
man on earth ever pictured to himself such 
high classical and ethereal beauty, for the wor- 
ship of imagination, as this distinguished Roman. 
Cicero was an eclectic philosopher ; he entered 
the schools free from the sourness of pedantry 
which the pride of philosophy was to pardon 
and hallow. His genius led him to explore 
theories and systems with a sole view to de- 
light, — to seek something to employ his insa- 
tiable imagination. His usefulness to moral 
science is the same in kind, though superior in 
degree, to that of modern essayists ; his elegant 
effusions inspired a delight to investigate the 
topics of which they treated, — a desire which 
twenty centuries have not abated in the breast 
of liberal scholars. 

With Seneca and Marcus Antoninus closes 
the line of ancient moralists, and with them the 
chief praise of human ingenuity and wisdom. 



52 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy- 
Unassisted philosophy never made such vast 
proficiency as at the time elapsing between Soc- 
rates and Antoninus. After this time the 
Christian religion comes in, supplying the de- 
fects and correcting the errors of morality, and 
establishing on the vv^hole a grander system ; but 
human ingenuity alone never soared so high as 
during the epoch we have marked. 

From these philosophers, ethics were deliv- 
ered down to the Christian fathers with all the 
new motives and sanctions opened by revelation. 
With all their parade of schools and disputa- 
tions, the fathers did little to settle the founda- 
tions of morals. They wrote much about them, 
and collected the crude materials for others to 
analyze. They endeavored to show a contra- 
riety in the laws of reason and revelation, and 
to substitute their expositions of the one for the 
plain dictates of the other. But the obscurity 
of the monastic cell, and the narrow views 
which were entailed upon each succession of 
the Roman Priesthood, were unfavorable to 
grand apprehensions of moral science. Some 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 53 

of them were sufficiently familiar with Greek 
and Roman philosophy to take up the subject 
on proper grounds, but it was beyond the force 
of minds perverted by bigotry to continue as it 
had been begun. 

The history of this hierarchy must always 
remain a phenomenon in the annals of the 
world. The commissioned apostles of peace 
and religion were seen arming the nations of 
Europe to a more obstinate and pernicious con- 
test than had ever been known ; and pursued 
with fatal hostility, with seven successions of 
bloodshed and horror, till its dye was doubled 
on the crimson cross. Not content with this, 
the ambitious popes were embroiled in perpetual 
disputes with their crowned subjects, and from 
every new contest the consecrated robber reaped 
some new acquisition to enrich the domain of 
the church. 

In the theory of this ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, a different and graver character should 
naturally have been expected from the vicar of 
Christ. From the nature of the institution. 



54 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

great results in intellectual science might reason- 
ably be expected from the peaceful and educated 
clergy. Neither domestic relations nor labors 
to obtain a livelihood interfered to deter them 
from these pursuits, and we can hardly ascribe 
their failure to want of motive. The difficulty 
seems to have been lodged in the very spirit 
which pervaded and characterized the whole 
church, that of choosing darkness rather than 
light, — a perverse obstinacy of ignorance. To 
exhibit a system of morals, entire and in all its 
parts, requires a powerful faculty of generaliza- 
tion, which is nourished only where opinion is 
free and knowledge is valued ; it requires, also, 
an accurate discrimination, accustomed to op- 
pose subtlety and sophistry with ambidexter in- 
genuity, and a complete emancipation from big- 
otry, the besetting sin of the Roman church. 
With the torch of revelation in their hands, we 
find the Christian fathers inculcating the neces- 
sity of silly and degrading penances, the offering 
of whim or delirium, or bidding the transgressor 
repair to the Holy Land, in order to propitiate 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 55 

the favor of the Deity. The Hindoo had gone 
far beyond them in his moral estimates. " If 
thou be not," says the lawgiver Menu, " at va- 
riance, by speaking falsely, with Yama, the sub- 
duer of all, with Vaivaswata, the punisher, with 
that great divinity who dwells in the breast, go 
not on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to 
the plains of Curu, for thou hast no need of ex- 
piation." 

By the rapid advancement of the collateral 
philosophy of the mind by the spring imparted 
by Bacon and Descartes, ethical speculations 
were matured and improved. It was useless to 
disclose defects in the culture of the moral pow- 
ers till the knowledge of the mental operations 
taught how they should be amended and regu- 
lated. 

With Lord Bacon our remarks have less con- 
nection than with his less illustrious contempo- 
raries, for in contemplating the science of mor- 
als we have only to speak of the classifiers and 
theorists who have analyzed, not the sages who 
have recommended and applied it. A sketch 



56 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

of the science has no more concern with the 
beautiful sentiments it contains or occasions, 
than the nature of the soil with the different 
owners through which its title had passed. 

An important controversy which has been 
much agitated among modern philosophers, — 
whether benevolence or selfishness be the 
ground of action, — arose chiefly from the ma- 
levolent spirit of Mr. Hobbes, whose shrewd 
speculations discovered to society that all their 
relations were artificial and grotesque ; and that 
nature, which they had ignorantly judged to be 
so sublime and aspiring, would lead them to the 
character and circumstances of bears and tigers. 

This opinion that nature tends to savageness 
and stupidity is not true. For the impulse to 
exertion, which urges all our faculties to their 
highest possible degree, is very powerful and 
prompts men to social intercourse, where alone 
they have their widest range. We delight in 
every exertion of active moral power, and ex- 
claim against every retrograde step, and against 
sloth, the antagonist vice, as the brother of ig- 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 57 

norance. Few men, probably, feel any inclina- 
tion to perform the experiment of weakening the 
magnet ; all prefer to see its power accumula- 
ting. The system of fanatic philosophy which 
in the course of time was the result of these 
speculations of Mr. Hobbes, and the accursed 
fruits of whose prevalence were abundantly 
reaped in France, sweeps away all the duties 
which we owe to others ; this would elevate the 
ostrich to a higher rank in the scale of merit 
and wisdom than the man, old and honorable, 
whose parental affection dictates actions of wise 
and profound calculation. 

Dr. Cudworth attacked the system of Hobbes, 
in his " Immutable Morality," with ability and 
success, and modern opinion has concurred in his 
boldest positions. The fine remarks of the elo- 
quent Burke may be extended to moral nature : 
" Nature is never more truly herself than in her 
grandest forms ; the Apollo of Belvedere is as 
much in nature as any figure from the pencil of 
Rembrandt, or any clown in the rustic revels of 
Teniers." After Cudworth we must mention 



58 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

Dr. Clark, Dr. Price, and Bishop Butler ; and 
in naming Reid, Paley, Smith, Stewart, we com- 
plete the list of modern moralists. 

After any review of the history of the science 
the question becomes important. In what re- 
spects does its ancient and modern history dif- 
fer ? The truths of morality must in all ages 
be the same ; the praise of its teachers consists 
in the ability manifested in their development. 
A satisfactory development of these truths in 
morals is far more difficult than in other sci- 
ences, for the tenure is exceedingly delicate by 
which faculties imperfect as ours can long retain 
such objects in steady view ; and it is a sagacious 
observation, somewhere made in the Edinburgh 
Review^ that our feelings are never in their 
natural state when, by a forced revocation of 
them, we can attentively study their aspects. 
Its fundamental principles are taught by the 
moral sense, and no advancement of time or 
knowledge can improve them. 

It is otherwise in the sciences which detect 
and measure the elements of matter; there. 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 59 

great advancements may hereafter be made, and 
what are now regarded as profound and ultimate 
discoveries may at a distant period be looked 
upon as superficial and elementary speculations ; 
many, perhaps, of the golden promises of alchemy 
may be realized, for we have not derived from 
nature any ultimate acquaintance with the con- 
stitution of the external world. But in morals, 
what is known now of the good and evil pro- 
pensities of the heart, and of the modes of cor- 
recting and regulating them, was known two 
thousand years ago to every discerning and con- 
templative man, and Druid speculated with 
Druid much in the manner that a modern phi- 
losopher, with all his imagined immensity of 
improvement, converses with his friend on the 
ordinary topics of morality. This is abundantly 
proved by the circumstance which almost inva- 
riably attends promulgation of a philosophic 
theory, — that authors start up to prove its 
antiquity, and that it is the identical theory 
which Pythagoras, Plato, or Epicurus pro- 
pounded before. Pythagoras is supposed to have 



6o The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

borrowed from the Druids his imperfect moral 
system. 

We shall enumerate the chief points of dis- 
tinction in modern ethics. The most which has 
been done is the tracing with great precision the 
boundary lines of the systems in order to adapt 
them, more and more accurately, to the known 
relations of truth. 

The moderns have made their ethical writ- 
ings of a more practical character than the sages 
of antiquity. It is common to accuse them of 
having written on such subjects as admitted of 
much display, to have paid more regard to the 
author than to the reader. The ancients bal- 
anced the comparative excellence of two virtues 
or the badness of two vices ; they determined the 
question whether solitude or society were the 
better condition for virtue. The moderns have 
substituted inquiries of deep interest for those of 
only speculative importance. We would ask, in 
passing, what discussion of Aristotle or Socrates 
can compare, in this respect, with the train of 
reasoning by which Dr. Price arrives at the con- 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 6i 

elusion that every wrong act is a step to all that 
is tremendous in the universe. 

Unhke the arts, science becomes simpler as it 
proceeds. The old enumeration of the elements 
has been subjected to scientific analysis until 
their number has been largely multiphed, and we 
are perhaps still far removed from the simplicity 
of nature. So in morals, the first speculators 
were propounders of theories which they could 
not explain, perplexing mankind and themselves 
with abstruse, ill-digested systems. As it pro- 
gressed, light and simplicity began to be intro- 
duced into moral philosophy, but it was always 
a study which the indolent and mere man of 
taste abhorred. The moderns have struck nearer 
the root; they have brought in this simplification 
by laying down maxims in morals and proposing 
to introduce demonstrations from mathematical 
analogy. 

In the modern systems of ethical philosophy 
the duties whose performance constitutes virtue 
are ranged under three classes ; viz., those whose 
regard we owe to the Deity, those which we owe 



62 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

to others, and those which regard ourselves. 
Morality founds these duties on the will of the 
Creator as expressed in the constitution of the 
world, and in revelation. In ascertaining the will 
of God it does not always proceed on the prin- 
ciple that the greatest possible happiness is 
intended, for that this is true, we cannot know; 
it is judged safer to reason from adaptation and 
analogy. The object of these reasonings is to 
confirm the decision of the moral faculty, which 
is recognized as an original principle of our 
nature, — an intuition by which we directly 
determine the merit or demerit of an action. In 
these views man is regarded as a free agent, at 
least to all the purposes of which we have any 
conception, possessed of appetites, desires, and 
affections which he is to regulate and control. 
The hope opened to his aspirations is a future 
life of retribution to which all the energies of 
rational creation look forward, promised by reve- 
lation and confirmed by adaptation and analogy. 
Next to these, philosophy explains the rights 
of man, as, paternal rights, the rights of person 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 63 

and property, implying the right of self-defence. 
These are better understood now than formerly. 
Prior to the precise defining of the limits of 
obligation and right, the paternal authority was 
extended by the laws of Rome over the life as 
well as fortunes of the son, until the father 
should voluntarily resign it. This dangerous 
paternal prerogative could not be tolerated at the 
present time in civilized nations. The wisdom 
of experience has determined that such an insti- 
tution operates to the mischief of both ; by in- 
vesting the father with the power it tempts him 
to become a tyrant, and the son of a domestic 
tyrant was rarely virtuous himself. There are 
peculiar traits in morals of remarkable force, 
which it is necessary to name. 

Moral philosophy recognizes a leveling prin- 
ciple which makes void the distinctions of intel- 
lect and the pride of erudition. It is fit that 
such a rule should be found in the world, else 
the universe would present an aristocracy odious 
to God and man, where the splendid but pro- 
faned gifts of genius would entitle the possessor 



64 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

to the thrones of angels; where then should we 
look for humble energies, though perhaps entirely 
devoted to the cause of virtue. In the eye of 
Deity the prostitution of genius annuls the praise 
of its acquisitions, and the improver of one tal- 
ent shall be amply repaid for its proper merit. 
It is intended that genius should be counter- 
balanced by worth, and this prevails so far that 
perhaps in another state the scale which now 
measures greatness may be entirely reversed. 

There is another distinguishing feature in 
morals which deserves notice, and which bears 
some analogy to the last, — that a series of 
humble efforts is more meritorious than solitary 
miracles of virtue. The former are unpretend- 
ing and unnoticed, opposing more obstacles to 
pursuit with less outside honor to allure imita- 
tion ; the latter excite applause, and as their 
occasions necessarily occur seldom, are of less 
utility to the general welfare. For example, the 
patience of an obscure individual who endures 
for years the peevishness or fretful disdain of 
another, still preserving his own susceptibility, 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 65 

and at the last feels every emotion of benevolence 
for the offender, is a nobler martyrdom than 
Regulus or Curtius underwent. Or supposing 
the case that the private life of Curtius exhibited 
the character we have described, it was a greater 
merit thus to suffer than to perform his renowned 
sacrifice. For the human mind is so constituted 
as to expand on extraordinary calls for sentiment 
and strong feeling to meet the occasion with 
adequate effort ; and this spring will alone prompt 
a susceptible man to great sacrifices, even with- 
out fixed principles of virtue. Hence all the 
inducements which this excitement and the love 
of fame present subtract from the moral merit ; 
and let any man ask himself in moments of high 
excitement, whether, had he been placed in 
parallel circumstances with the Roman, could he 
have hesitated a moment to plunge into the 
yawning abyss. 

We have sketched the leading characteristics 
of ethical science as it is represented by modern 
teachers, — by Reid, Paley, Stewart. But there 
have been always connected with this science 



66 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

disputes on the nature of happiness and of vir- 
tue. The ancient sectarians, in their distinctive 
moral tenets, only embodied the ideas which 
every man conversant with ethics entertains of 
happiness in different moods of mind. When 
his contemplations are religiously pure, he ac- 
knowledges the truth of Socrates and the Stoics, 
who placed felicity in virtue ; when his mind is 
relaxed and his heart and taste excited, he im- 
agines the chief good to reside, as the Cyrenaics 
supposed, in pleasure, or, with the Epicureans, 
in tranquillity of mind ; and when he recollects 
these vacillations of opinion, he unites with the 
doubting Pyrrho to found happiness on an abso- 
lute exemption from scruples and the confession 
that there is no constant nature of good and 
evil. The most ingenious theory which has 
been proposed to reconcile these futile specu- 
lations on this theme is Mr. Hume's, who, in 
developing his scheme of excitability and ex- 
citement, did not attempt to prove the existence 
of any single splendid quality attainable by the 
few alone, but to establish a universal equi- 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 67 

librium of capacity for enjoyment and pain. 
Old systems indicated some one external quality 
or affection of the mind as happiness ; the pres- 
ent plan discovered it in the condition of mind, 
without regard to the particular objects of con- 
templation. Whatever may have been the views 
which dictated this theory, it certainly discovers 
great philosophical sagacity. 

In the ardor of reducing all science to ulti- 
mate principles, from Socrates to Paley, virtue 
has shared largely in these attempts of philoso- 
phers. One maintained a balance among the 
affections ; another, action according to the fit- 
ness of things. Wollaston urges the truth^ and 
Goodwin the justice of things. Dr. Paley at- 
tempted to reconcile all on the principle of ex- 
pediency. All understand by it the same thing, 
— a conformity to the law of conscience. It 
is only a dispute about words. 

Mr. Hume (whose acknowledgment of daily 
contradiction to his theory every one is prone 
to remember) has attempted to undermine the 
foundations of belief, and to represent the eter- 



68 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

nal truths of morality as involved in the same 
gloomy uncertainty with which he would en- 
velop all knowledge. Entrenching himself 
behind his system, which can find no relation 
between cause and effect, he wanders on till he 
has effaced memory, judgment, and, finally, our 
own consciousness ; and the laws of morals 
become idle dreams and fantasies. 

This outrage upon the feelings of human 
nature cannot be supported by any dexterous 
use of argument. If this only be fact, mankind 
will be content to be deceived ; if the system 
of morals which we hold to be true be a dream, 
it is the dream of a god reposing in Elysium ; 
and who would desire to be awaked from the 
sublime deception ? To this pernicious inge- 
nuity has been opposed the common-sense phil- 
osophy of which Dr. Reid is the chief champion, 
which aims at establishing a code of propositions 
as axioms which no rational being will dispute, 
and, reasoning from these, to refute the vision- 
ary schemes of Mr. Hume and Bishop Berkeley. 
These reasonings as yet want the neatness and 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 69 

conclusiveness of a system, and have not been 
made vv^ith such complete success as to remove 
the terror vv^hich attached to the name of Hume. 

It has lately become prevalent to speak slight- 
ingly of this great man, cither lest the ignorant 
should suspect him to be an overmatch for the 
orthodox philosophers, or in order to retaliate 
upon infidelity that irresistible w^eapon, a sneer. 
Such a course of conduct is injudicious, for in- 
quiry is not likely to sleep in such an age, on 
such a subject ; and if there be formidable 
doubts to w^hich no unanimous solution can be 
formed, it is more philosophical, as well as more 
manly, to ascribe to human short-sightedness its 
own necessary defects, for the end of all human 
inquiry is confessedly ignorance. 

The only way to determine the perfection of 
the present state of ethics is by examining how 
far they fall short of the condition at which we 
may reasonably expect human improvement to 
arrive. After ages of separation from our present 
being we shall be more competent to adjust 
these estimates. Every man is liable to be mis- 



70 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

led by his personal improvement, and an indi- 
vidual arrived at that period of life when every 
day discovers a new set of ideas is prone to 
mistake the rapid development of his own powers 
for an accession of light which has broken upon 
the age. In topics of this nature there is also 
danger lest minute details of some portions which 
have had peculiar interest for him intrude upon 
his notice so as to occupy a disproportionate 
part of the picture. We must content ourselves 
with making observations on the condition of 
society and its causes so far as they relate to 
ethics. 

Much has been done in the higher ranks of 
modern society by English periodical essays. 
Ranked with the elegant classics of the age, they 
have penetrated where treatises professedly moral 
would never have come. This is combating 
vice in its high places with its own weapons. 
The most abominable evil becomes seductive by 
an unnatural union with elegance, and corrupt 
genius has accomplished immense mischief by 
insinuating that we abhor what we admire. It 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 7 1 

is just that virtue should avail itself of the same 
advantage and embellish moral truth v^ith intel- 
lectual beauty. Here there is no disgusting 
antipathy or repulsion to be overcome; they 
combine perfectly, and in their results v^e should 
expect from mankind the creation of demigods. 
Very much has been claimed for The Spec- 
tator in rooting out, first, the lighter follies of 
fashion, and afterw^ards invading vice of a darker 
character, particularly gaming and duelling. 
From the facts adduced, it appears that the real 
good done to mankind has not been overrated, 
and the authors of the Tatler^ Spectator^ Ram" 
hler^ and Adventurer deserve the praise v^^hich 
Socrates and w^hich Cicero merit. They have 
diffused instruction and inspired a desire in those 
studious of elegant literature to inquire, by un- 
folding in pleasing forms the excellence of virtue 
and by taking advantage of that principle in our 
nature w^hich induces us to enjoy, w^ith satisfac- 
tion and delight, pictures of finished virtue. They 
have censured the turpitude of vvrit and recom- 
mended virtuous feeling so artfully that the 



72 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

Strains could not displease. "The good and 
evil of Eternity," said Johnson, " are too pon- 
derous for the wings of wit," — but it may sus- 
tain its share of the burden and prepare the way 
for science to soar. 

From these causes of the vast propagation of 
knowledge in the world is derived the chief 
advantage of modern ethics, — that they are 
everywhere disseminated. It is only from very 
extensive comedy in the departments of litera- 
ture that the tone and character of prevalent 
conversation which belonged to any period can 
be faithfully transmitted. Hence if we institute 
a comparison between the ordinary colloquial 
intercourse of ancient Rome and Greece on the 
one part and modern civilized nations on the 
other, we are obliged to resort, in forming our 
ideas of them, to the influence of their political 
condition, and to the diffusion of knowledge 
which we know them to have enjoyed. 

But judged in these respects, modern society 
will be found to outstrip the maturest progress of 
both these nations. In every family of ordinary 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 73 

advantages in the middle ranks of life the great 
questions of morahty are discussed with freedom 
and intelligence, introduced as matters of specu- 
lation but as having foundations of certainty like 
any other science. In the lowest orders of the 
people the occurrences of the day are debated, 
the prudence or folly of politicians and private 
conduct examined, and all with a reference to 
know the principles of ethical science. Anciently, 
such views were confined to small circles of 
philosophers. Out of the schools they were 
regarded as things of remote and partial interest, 
much as we regard the useless subtleties of the 
schoolmen. Now these discussions are connected 
with the domestic arrangements of every house- 
hold and are associated with every recollection of 
his childhood which the man retains and acts 
upon afterwards. This diffusion of the knowl- 
edge accumulated upon these topics, although it 
does not multiply new terms of technical value 
nor unfold delicate discoveries to the subtle meta- 
physician, is yet the true and best interest of 
philosophy ; for it marks the boundary line of 



74 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

truth and speculation, it settles the foundations 
of the science to be in the opinions of men, and 
thus confers the only legitimate immortality upon 
its constitution and results. 

The last view in which we propose to consider 
our subject is the influence of the present ad- 
vanced acquaintance with ethics on political 
science. This influence is not subtle or difficult 
to be perceived, but is perfectly plain and obvious. 
After the decline of the Roman church the 
lower orders in Europe had no Indian Brahmin 
to tell them that in the eternal rounds of trans- 
migration their souls could never rise above the 
jackal ; and the license which the press imme- 
diately created tended directly to enlighten and 
emancipate them. Such books as Machiavel's 
'' Prince," whether designed to favor them or not, 
could not fail to open their eyes to the bondage 
under which they groaned. When at length 
moral discussions, which before were strange and 
unintelligible to their ears, began to be under- 
stood and they comprehended the nature of 
property and government, things were in a train 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 7 5 

of amendment, and popular investigation could 
not be averted. There could be little hope left 
to oppressive despotism after the peasant had 
learned that the professed object of the robed and 
reverenced legislator was to " repress all those 
actions which tend to produce more pain than 
pleasure, and to promote all those which tend to 
produce more pleasure than pain." The results 
of this progress have been distinctly manifested 
in the gradual demolition of the feudal system, by 
the rise of the commons in Europe ; secondly, by 
the full development of the science of Represen- 
tation ; and lastly, by the rebellion of the people 
against the throne, everywhere manifested either \^ 
in dangerous symptoms or in actual revolution. 
To the statesman this crisis becomes alarming; 
he surveys national embarrassments with regard 
to their immediate consequences, and that con- 
tinent is crowded with politicians portending tre- 
mendous events about to ensue. But the moralist 
regards this commotion as the inevitable effect of 
the progress of knowledge which might have 
been foreseen almost from the invention of print- 



76 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

ing, and which must proceed, with whatever 
disastrous effects the crisis is attended, to the 
calm and secure possession of equal rights and 
laws which it was intended to obtain. 

We are prone to indulge ideas of the perfect- 
ibility of human nature, when we anticipate the 
condition of future ages, and attempt to form 
estimates of their moral greatness. In contem- 
plating a science whose very object is to perfect 
the nature of man, imagination oversteps uncon- 
sciously the limit, to depict miraculous excellence 
which poetry promises and philosophy desires but 
dares not expect. The first true advance which 
is made must go on in the school in which Reid 
and Stewart have labored. Philosophers must 
agree in terms and discover their own ideas with 
regard to the moral sense, or, as others term it, 
the decisions of the understanding. They will 
perhaps form the proposed code of moral maxims 
and look no longer for many ultimate principles. 
It is not necessary to make a moral arithmetic, as 
Bentham has done, but it is necessary that they 
should persevere in accurate classifications ; and 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 77 

when at length the possessors of the science shall 
have agreed in their principles, the precepts of 
acknowledged right must find their way into the 
councils of nations. 

The plague spot of slavery must be purged 
thoroughly out before any one will venture to 
predict any great consummation. The faith of 
treaties must be kept inviolate even to the partial 
suffering of millions, and the pandects which 
subsist between all the civiUzed nations — that 
sole memorial of human fellowship — must be 
religiously observed. Abolishing the thousand 
capricious policies which dictate the conduct of 
states, there must be substituted the one eternal 
policy of moral rectitude. The estabhshing of 
the American government we esteem as tending 
powerfully to these objects, — a government into 
which the unclean spirit of barbarous and unequal 
institutions has not entered, but which was formed 
in the very spirit of enlarged knowledge and lib- 
eral notions. Should these eras of perfection 
which imagination anticipates arrive, we must 
cease to speculate with any reference to the 



78 The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

progress of science -, if science can sustain such 
an advancement, it must terminate here. Ethics 
are only the alphabet of the perfection of rational 
nature ; it here becomes an elementary recollec- 
tion, and useless any further. 

Such is a sketch of the progress and present 
condition of morals, of its objects and charac- 
teristic features, and of its prospects. Every dis- 
cussion of this science carries w^ith it this recom- 
mendation, — that it is a new assertion of the 
highest human privileges ; that, independently 
of the view which it opens, we only begin spec- 
ulations which we shall continue in more exalted 
states of existence. The interest which belongs 
to other sciences is partial and short-lived ; the 
arts and physical researches do not awaken the 
same enthusiasm in the young enquirer and in 
the man who lingers on the limits of life ; but the 
old age of the moralist is the harvest of many 
studious years, when he is gathering in long- 
expected results and solutions, the fruit of much 
experience and much solitary thought; and as 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 79 

human imperfections fade before him, his eye is 
fixed on richer acquisitions. 

To become a fervent scholar in this science, 
it is only necessary to learn its objects and ten- 
dencies. Morality is constituted the rule by 
which the world must stand. The laws which 
govern society are only compends, more or less 
imperfect, of natural morality. The departure 
from this law is the decay of human glory. 
Formerly, moral corruption struck the blow at 
Assyrian, Grecian, and Roman magnificence, and 
is at this day sapping the stability of European 
monarchies. Amid the violent convulsions of 
the political world produced by this energetic 
principle of desolation, it is well to withdraw 
ourselves from so wretched a spectacle, to search 
out the sources in the passions of individuals. 
It is ennobling thus to place ourselves on an 
eminence from whence we survey at once the 
whole history of legislation and refer to our 
knowledge of ethical truth in judging of the good 
or bad spirit of laws. So in letters, if it is a 



8o The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 

refined study to examine and compare the litera- 
ture of different nations and follow the flight of 
different muses, it is more refined to discover the 
reasons why they give pleasure, to trace the moral 
influence which created them, and the reciprocal 
influence which they claimed on morals. 

But its chief eulogy consists in its effect on 
the individual. It obliterates the impure lines 
which depravity, error, and example have written 
upon the mind, and having erased these first 
impressions, and abolished crime which is engen- 
dered by them, substitutes sentiments and pre- 
cepts which promote the happiness of man, whose 
exercise generates pure and tranquil enjoyment, 
and which the Divine Being will justify and 
reward. Happiness is incompatible with con- 
sciousness of danger ; the sense of insecurity 
poisons the passing delight with the constant 
apprehension of its loss ; but nothing can alter 
the peace of mind which dwells, by a divine 
necessity, with unblemished virtue ; it is perpet- 
ually advancing towards new relations of intel- 
lectual splendor and moral sublimity. 



The Present State of Ethical Philosophy 8i 

We are justified in preferring morals to every 
other science ; for that science has more perma- 
nent interest than any other, which, outliving the 
substance on which other knowledge is founded, 
is to retain its relations to us when man is 
resolved into spirit. That which constitutes the 
health integrity of the universe should be known 
as far as that universe extends to the intelligences 
which imbibe and enjoy the benevolence of its 
Author. 



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